Javaris Crittenton is fouled by Denver's Jelani McCoy in a Lakers victory in November 2007. KEVIN SULLIVAN, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Javaris Crittenton moved up the aisle until he found his row. He waited for a moment, then patiently and slowly slid over to his seat along with the young lady with him.

He wasn’t at the movie theater for just another date night.

He was at Staples Center.

It was Section 112, an excellent seat not far behind Jeanie Buss, and it was a night for excitement, as is always the case for a Lakers home playoff game.

For Crittenton, it was a night for mixed emotions.

It was 2008, and he had no official loyalty left toward the home team, which had traded him a few months earlier – giving up early and eagerly on its first-round draft pick to acquire Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies.

The trade transformed the Lakers, then and now, officially reeling Kobe Bryant in to cuddle close again with the only franchise he has ever known: “It shows a level of commitment that I questioned over the summer,” Bryant said when the deal went down.

And the Lakers marched through those 2008 playoffs, losing only in the NBA Finals after six games … but winning the ’09 and ’10 Finals.

Meanwhile, Crittenton’s career gradually fell to pieces – and now there is a much bigger picture looking shattered.

Crittenton, 23, has been charged with murdering an Atlanta woman. He left Atlanta for Los Angeles after the Aug. 19 alleged shooting but was arrested Monday night at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.

Crittenton had sat and watched that 2008 game from his seat facing the Lakers’ bench without much expression. It was hard to tell if Crittenton was still rooting for his old team.

But an impassive countenance was nothing unusual for Crittenton, who wore it through most of the four months he got to slip those sloped shoulders inside the Lakers’ jersey No. 1. The lack of outward expression left his Lakers teammates and coaches believing Crittenton was too stuck in his own head to get into his team’s game.

Crittenton was behind Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar at the Lakers’ lead guard position, limited by his poor decision-making and outside shooting. Still, the Lakers saw potential in him – such great speed on a 6-foot-5 frame – same as did the Grizzlies in trading for Crittenton even though they already had a young point guard in Mike Conley.

The Wizards also saw the upside in trading for Crittenton less than a year later and let him run the team very late in their very lost season. An ankle injury undermined any further opportunities, as did more playing-time complications with Gilbert Arenas back healthy and Randy Foye joining the team.

An injured Crittenton never played a minute of the 2009-10 season before he and Arenas were suspended for the rest of it by NBA commissioner David Stern after they brought guns into the Wizards’ locker room before practice – making it an easy call for Washington not to bring Crittenton back to the team.

Entering last season, Crittenton got a tryout with the Charlotte Bobcats but couldn’t make good on it. He signed a one-year contract to play in China – but was dismissed after half a month, according to niubball.com, for his inability to play well with others.

You could make a case that no one ever really gave Crittenton the full chance to do his thing as an NBA player, but he also never created his own opportunity – and certainly undermined himself with the gun incident with Arenas.

Crittenton’s career became defined by that highly publicized transgression. It should be noted, however, that Crittenton had never been charged with a crime in his life before pleading guilty to misdemeanor gun possession from the Arenas incident. Crittenton’s lawyers have proclaimed his innocence of this murder charge.

But police said Crittenton was seeking vengeance for being robbed in April, when a teenager held him at gunpoint and ordered him to “give me what you got.” What Crittenton had, even with his basketball career sinking fast, was a $25,000 black diamond necklace, a $30,000 black diamond watch, an iPhone and $25 cash, according to the police report.

The pitiable contrast between $55,000 in flashy jewels and $25 in cash speaks for itself – and fails to jibe with what Crittenton preached while trying to make amends and the Bobcats’ roster less than a year ago:

“Use wisdom in everything,” Crittenton said, “and just don’t get caught up in foolishness and nonsense and crazy people around you.”

Crittenton’s last post Friday to his now-deleted Twitter account, according to tweetscenter.com, included this reference to the alleged murder: “This is crazy. Trouble seems to follow me for some reason.” Crittenton’s Twitter profile had read: “Say hello to the bad guy! They say I’m a bad guy. They say a lot about me let me tell you what I aint! 2 Words-LOYAL & REAL. HATERS MOTIVATE ME…nuff said.”

Innocent or guilty of the murder charge, Crittenton is as stuck in his own head as ever.

According to the FBI, he has family and friends in this area. He returned to Southern California in search of something – maybe escape, maybe understanding.

He probably wanted some of that stuff when he came back to Staples Center for that 2008 game and saw the Lakers lifting off without him.

But look at him now.

We all fall into sulking traps from time to time, but this should serve as a reminder: If everyone stuck his or her problems in a sack and put them out by the street, you’d quite likely take back your own before you would try to tackle someone else’s pile of garbage.

Just look at the two guys who beat out Crittenton once upon a time:

Farmar’s career certainly hasn’t taken off the way he’d expected, and he’s playing in Israel now in the hopes of getting his game back and still becoming an NBA starter. Fisher lost his championship mojo last season, has little idea what non-triangular future remains as a 37-year-old ballplayer and faces the formidable task of ending this lockout as the president of the players’ union.

Comparing any of that to Crittenton’s plight now is preposterous.

We should all remember to be thankful for what we have – even if there are always those seemingly with more.

There are also those with less.

Along this way, bear in mind, a mother was an innocent bystander – and her four young children were left behind.

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